Saving Lives
Changing Lives

The world’s fourth largest island, Madagascar boasts a unique ecosystem, with many species of plants and animals found nowhere else. However, the country has faced challenges in its socio-economic development and in recent decades it has experienced a stagnation in per capita income and a rise in absolute poverty. Political instability undermines government institutional capacity, economic growth and development efforts. It also reduces people's access to basic services and their ability to prevent and recover from frequent shocks such as climate-related disasters.  

With a gross domestic product per capita of US$ 422, the country is ranked 161st out of 189 according to the Human Development Index. Affecting almost half of all children under 5 - the world’s tenth highest rate – chronic malnutrition is considered a major public health concern in Madagascar. The costs associated with child undernutrition represent 14.5 percent of the country’s GDP.

Farming, fishing and forestry form the backbone of the Malagasy economy. Agriculture is dominated by rain-fed small-scale subsistence farming: seven out of 10 smallholder farmers own no more than 1.2 hectares of land. Rice is the main staple food and the island’s main crop, but not enough is produced to satisfy the national demand. Agricultural production remains low due to factors such as: limited access to agricultural productive assets, credit and markets; gender inequality limiting women and girls’ access to land; poor post-harvest techniques; inadequate natural resources management; and lack of adequate access to markets for smallholder farmers.      

Madagascar is among the ten countries most vulnerable to disasters and is considered to be the most cyclone-exposed country in Africa. A quarter of the population lives in areas highly prone to cyclones, floods or drought. Climate change and environmental degradation exacerbate these risks while the increasing fragility of the ecosystem intensifies vulnerability to shocks and food insecurity. Deforestation has become a major concern: 90 percent of Madagascar’s original rainforests have been lost to logging, charcoal-making and slash-and-burn agriculture.

The Grand Sud (south) region of Madagascar has suffered several consecutive years of inadequate rainfall; as a result, it is estimated that an average of 750,000 people per year are severely food insecure.

In Madagascar, the World Food Programme (WFP) addresses the immediate food needs of disaster-affected vulnerable populations through unconditional food assistance.  WFP also strengthens communities’ resilience through conditional assistance, distributing food for community assets creation or rehabilitation and supporting the access of smallholder farmers to markets. WFP also provides nutritional support to children, pregnant women and girls and nursing mothers for the prevention of acute malnutrition, while also supporting the treatment of moderate acute malnutrition and improving educational outcomes by ensuring child have access to nutritious food through its school meals programme.

To ensure the sustainability of its interventions, WFP strengthens the capacities of the Government of Madagascar through the provision of material and technical assistance and joint assessments and evaluations in the areas of food security and nutrition as well as Disaster Risk Reduction.

WFP’s work is concentrated in the disaster affected southern, south-western and south-eastern regions.

Show more
25.5 million
population
76%
of people live in poverty (less than US$1.90 a day)
25%
of people live in areas highly prone to natural disasters
Download country brief

What the World Food Programme is doing in Madagascar

  • COVID-19 response

    WFP supports the prevention of COVID-19 and addresses its socio-economic consequences on vulnerable population in three specific areas: social protection to support household consumption during the crisis and economic recovery thereafter; food and nutritional assistance to food-insecure, malnourished and at-risk populations and logistics and supply chain coordination systems to strengthen government and other stakeholders’ ability to respond to the pandemic.

  • Food assistance

    Based on findings from the Government-led Food Security Phase classification (IPC, June 2019), 900,000 people from 13 districts in the South and South-East are in crisis and emergency and need urgent humanitarian assistance. WFP plans to provide relief assistance to 210,000 people in 32 communes through food distributions and cash transfers, combined with activities to treat malnutrition children under 2.

  • Nutrition

    WFP provides support for the prevention of malnutrition and vitamin and mineral deficiencies among women, men, boys and girls. It also supports the Government’s efforts to increase the availability of high-quality fortified foods, in line with national commitments under the Scaling Up Nutrition initiative.

  • School feeding

    WFP provides school meals with the support of the Ministry of National Education and is helping to develop a national school feeding policy and a home-grown school feeding programme linked to smallholder farm production. This will help diversify food consumption, increase school retention rate and improve children’s ability to learn.

  • Support to smallholder farmers and resilience building

    WFP works with the Government to improve smallholder farmers’ livelihoods and resilience to climate shocks by strengthening their skills and ability to access and use productive assets, climate information, financial services and markets. WFP will focus on understanding and addressing the challenges faced by women in rural communities, who are often cut out from owning land and agricultural assets, and face discriminatory customary practices.

  • Emergency preparedness and response

    WFP supports the National Disaster Management Authority and the national institute of statistics in integrating the food security, vulnerability and nutrition assessments of different agencies into a single process that operates from the village to the national level. Backed by climate early warning, seasonal forecasts and seasonal agricultural data, this approach will enable government, humanitarian and development actors to implement preparedness and early response actions as part of a comprehensive, shock and gender-responsive social protection system.

Publications

Show more

In focus

Read more stories

Madagascar news releases

Go to page

Partners and Donors

Achieving Zero Hunger is the work of many. Our work in Madagascar is made possible by the support and collaboration of our partners and donors, including:

Find out more about the state of food security in Madagascar

Visit the food security analysis page

Operations in Madagascar

View all operations

Contacts

Antananarivo

Lot VB 71 GB Ambatoroka, BP 4199 ,101 Antananarivo, Madagascar

Email

WFP.Antananarivo@wfp.org

Phone: +261 032 07 137 01; +261 032 07 137 09; +261 033 07 001 03; +261 033 07 001 02

Fax: +261 20 22 322 99

For media inquiries

WFP.Antananarivo@wfp.org

Search

Advanced search